There are a million blogs and articles full of how to be a good DM. I want to talk about the flip side of the coin, how to be a better player.
Now, I'm going to use D&D3e for my examples, but these apply to any RPG.
My credentials? I used to do a lot of convention play, which means I could play with up to 30 other players each convention, and I would do this four or five times a year, if not more. I've seen just about every type of player that was in Living Greyhawk.
@Canageek
Speaking as a person who only had one or two sessions (WoW PnP):
Commit to actually PLAYING the game. A little real world social talk is fine, but the game I played was ruined by everyone doing nothing but.
The DM brought in a dragon to town to punish them. Exactly one player died: me. Neither the DM nor I tried playing with them again.
@Terxbor depends on the game. I've been at games where that was very much the case, whereas I've also been at games that are a social gathering with some roleplay. Match the mood of the game and other players.
@Canageek
Ok, but keep in mind that if you've got new players (like I was), chances are they want to actually play the game, and they'll expect to play and not just talk. At the absolute least, you owe it to them to tell them that not a lot of playing will get done.
@Terxbor yeah that's totally fine I also would not want to drop them straight into a super intrigue heavy game